Jaded No More

I'm sensing another KOTD moment for the MFC then

Jurrah - Watts - Sylvia

It's clearly Tom Scully. Everybody panic.

Intelligent on the field and off it. Good stuff!

Byron was the highlight of my night. Man is he fat! Hahaha Neita's kicking has turned to shite but Robbo has still got it. Took retirement to bring the unselfishness out of him though

I got some corporate tickets through work. Should be good to see Neita and Robbo again. I'm also looking forward to seeing how large Pickett is these days

No wonder I hate his guts. Such an undisciplined, non-team player.

That may be true for soft tissue injuries, but a shoulder injury... that's an impact injury and one that has been sustained by skinny, toned, overweight, and beef-cakes alike. Daniel Bell spent about 3 years getting one injury after the other, and he's one of the most toned and fit person at the club. Sometimes it's just a case of rotten luck, or players putting themselves in a position to get hurt too often (in Aussie's case, his intent to tackle has often been detrimental to his health).

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Ben Cousins (probably because he is drool-worthy ), so I wish him all the best in his recovery. Drug addiction is hard at the best of times, let alone when you are under such an intense spotlight. This may or may not be at all related, but I think he has made some pretty big in roads in his recovery (or so it seems from the outside), so I hope this isn't going to set him back.

Lucky not to have been delisted for that! B)

The way West Coast are playing, I can't see how his form could pick up so significantly that he'd suddenly be back in contention. He has shown less consistency than Jack Watts, and has done about as much. In fact, he and Jack average the same disposals per game and Watts has a higher goals per game average and more than double average marks per game, and that's despite playing in the war zone that is our forward line. Now Watts won't win the award, he probably won't even win a nomination, so there is no way in hell that Naitanui should win it!

Except Hawkins has real talent. I think we have given Newton plenty of opportunities and have just about tried to develop him in every possible position. He has 8 weeks to prove that he can play as a second ruck. If he dominates and somehow becomes Dean Cox 2.0, then he might get a one year contract, but given how many other players are already out of contract at seasons' end, I'd say Newton would be wedged on the to do list somewhere between Meesen and Bell.

Yep, that was stupid as well. Low percentage rubbish kicks that I don't want people like Dunn, who can barely slot them from 9m directly in front taking. If you're Jurrah or Bennell, you can get away with it, if you're Dunn, then no. Also agreed with Nasher that his brain does not cope under pressure. He makes terrible decisions, which is why he seems a lot better up forward where decision making isn't as crucial or necessary (not hard to decide between "go for goal" or "pass it on"). I know he played OK footy this season, but he has so many limitations, and for someone who doesn't fulfill a really vital role, that is not good. Bartram for example has limitations, but he does a very good job defensively and is required to play on small forwards, so you forgive some of his downfalls. But when you are a bit player with no real position, you need to have a lot of tricks up your sleeve to justify weekly selection.

Great post. I thought he played quite well and showed really good signs. I particularly liked his marks, because that is the sort of thing I want from a ruckman. I don't give a shite that Jamar can't kick, and neither does our footy department obviously. If they can tap to advantage and impact contests with their strength then that's all I want. The only kicking he has to work on is his goal kicking, just as Jamar has. As I've said before, he shows a lot more than Jamar did at this stage of his career.

Broker peace in the Middle East?

We have rules in place to prevent this from occuring. Posters who send abusive PMs generally get suspended, so I'd forward any abusive PMs to the moderating team to deal with. That's really not on!

In hindsight I was very heavy handed with those changes wasn't I? Problem is, there are too many players who played for Casey this weekend who I want back in the side ASAP, which means I had to drop more players than usual to make way. No doubt we won't see more than 2 maybe 3 changes, so my absolute musts for this week are Sylvia, Bail and Jurrah. I also want to see Warnock back to replace MacDonald or Rivers.

Have a look at Richmond's draw over the past 6 weeks, and compare it to ours.

I just spat my coffee!

Because 80% of our team hasn't cracked 50 games yet, and are trying to get their head around playing AFL, and the other 20% are senior players who are unreliable and/or untalented. Now you've got your answer, you can move on from blaming the coaching staff for everything. 2 coaches have now failed to extract consistency out of the same senior players, so I know who I'm blaming.

I'd give him the B&F now had he punched Milne.

Dunn IMO is still not good enough, and probably never will be good enough to be a premiership player. If we are serious about building a team that is of sufficient quality to win a flag, then we need to get serious about playing guys like Morton ahead of Dunn. He was OK today, he has been OK all season, but if this is the best we are going to get from him, then I'll pass. The same goes for MacDonald and Cheney. They are just players, and just players don't win you premierships. Jones and Moloney are in a similar boat, but they are needed for their big bodies in the middle and in Moloney's case the clearance work and his leadership. But long term, I actually hope they struggle to get a regular game because that means we have found better quality midfielders. This is not a slur on any of these guys, who work hard and give their all. Unfortunately talent can't be purchased at Safeway, so it doesn't matter how hard you try, if you're lacking the talent and you don't play a key role in the team (e.g.- Ruck/ KPP), chances are your place in the side will forever be unsure. I've seen us pump countless games into very average footballers for years. Hopefully we don't fall into the same trap again under Bailey. I'd rather lose by 55 points with a team full of experimental kids than lose by 25 points with average players who try hard but won't get us very far.

I don't think we know how to play against teams that play a rolling defensive zone. We are told to always look inwards and play through the corridor, but when we come up against teams that block the corridor, we lose ourselves. The kick-outs today were terrible because of that as well, but then St Kilda spent a lot of time going backwards as well, especially as the game wore on and we figured out how to men them up. Although in the last we obviously rolled the diced to try and pull off a victory, and it didn't work. Had we had a full midfield rotation, we may have been able to run them off their feet a bit, because they aren't particularly quick through the middle.

In: Jurrah, Sylvia, Bail, Warnock, Morton Out: Grimes , MacDonald (turnover king and not a long term player for us), Jetta/Bennell, Cheney, Jones Tempted to get rid of Dunn, but it probably won't happen. Mind you, if Morton was dropped last week, then Bate deserves to be dropped this week. He did less than nothing.

And we weren't out of the game at quarter time. In fact, had Dunn not failed as a forward and kicked the easiest shot on goal ever, we would have WON A FIRST QUARTER! Why are we beating up on the team this week I'm not sure. Last week we were pathetic and an utter disgrace to the jumper, this week we tried our best and just simply were outplayed by a better side who had a full bench for the entire game. Mind you, we have got to learn to play against team who play that rubbish defensive zone.